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So I’ve been Leopardized! And gosh, it feels great.

Since it’s a busy night, I’ve decided to micro-review the new feline unleashed by Apple.

Installation went more than smoothly, given the fact that I have backed up most of my stuff using iBackup to an external hard drive, I just restarted and started rolling. I did a clean install of course and I recommend that to all of you – there’s nothing like the smell of a crisp clear Leopardized system in the autumn air.

I restored most of my stuff by hand, but restoring some things from iBackup went really smooth too. Beware though, if you, like me, use Soho Notes to gather your gazillion tidbits during the day, be sure to export and save your database, because due to stupid OpenBase, resides in some arcane folder that did not get backed up by iBackup. How quaint. For the record, I lost all of my Soho Notes stored stuff. Sigh.

The new Desktop & Dock are pweeeeeeeetty. I guess I’d love a 3d horizontal dock if I had a humongous 24” iMac, but on my 13.3” Macbook, I always set the dock vertically on the left. The translucent effect and tiny shiny baubles is nice, me likes.

Stacks is a neat idea, really. Does not work too nice with too many files, but help you organize your downloads and even clean them up! How cool is that?

The new Finder is full of tiny usability fixes that makes navigating around your system’s files easier than ever. Quicklook is perfect for quickly checking photos among different folders, really, it’s a gem feature for times like these.

The new Spotlight is fast, but I’ll never switch from Quicksilver, that application is too much of a tool for me, it can do things Spotlight will never do. I must admit though that Spotlight is the fastest search mechanism I’ve seen embedded in an OS.

Spaces is… well… useful I guess. But I must admit : I get lost in all the shiny windows! Seriously. So I reduced the default 4 spaces to 2. Aaah, much better (and simpler).

I haven’t used Time Machine just yet, because my LaCie is full of backups that must be sorted out and deleted. I’m sure it’s pretty much simple, though, simple and powerful.

The new Mail sure looks promising – I love the fact that they added notes and to-dos, which can transform your inbox to a true productivity powerhouse given the right conditions. By the way, was that Exchange support always there?

iChat got a handful of pleasant surprises – I love effects and animated backgrounds and tabbed chats and all this, eventhough I use Adium as my main IM client. Still, iChat is one of the prime solutions for video chatting, if you don’t want to get involved with call-me-digitized-voice Skype.

All in all, my system runs smoothly as butter so far, with only the occasional hiccup from a stubborn app that refuses to be leopardized. As if it has a choice, ha!

My suggestion? Don’t wait. Just don’t. Do it, today!

*jumps around in sheer apple fangirlism*

apple, leopard, macosx, time machine, ichat, quicklook, dock, finder, spotlight, spaces, ichat, mail.app

I’ve warned you before, drivers roaming the streets of Heraklion: if you did not pay attention back then, your bad.

Your favourite n00b driver just got a car, a shiny new slightly used Toyota Yaris, model 2001.

I can say one thing: it’s a beauty. I’m a sucker for cars but was sceptical towards Yaris, but after all, this little thingie got me in love.

It’s a very easy-going car and it seems to me it fits me completely. Is it a female car, easy to drive and pretty? Maybe. Maybe that’s the reason I love it.

Expect some photo updates in Flickr soon!

toyota, yaris

I was recently contacted by the generous mr. Ricky Stewart who owns the online tee store TheRyde.com, featuring a nice range of awesome t-shirts for men, women and kids. He offered to send me some schwag to review and I gladly accepted, since I’m a sucker for nice tees, having bought.

To be frank, at first I thought his kind e-mail was a scam, but after we exchanged some e-mails I was convinced and sent him my address and contact details.

Two days ago I got a small parcel with all sorts of goodies: a tee (which I myself have selected), 8 badges, 4 or 5 iron designs and many many stickers. I was thrilled to see all this stuff coming out of the envelope, who wouldn’t? Definitely a good marketing practice, at least in my book.

So I wore my brand new t-shirt during the next day at work. The fabric is nice and soft, not as thick as Threadless.com fabrics but of a good quality whatsoever. The colour was nice and the stamp is really solid, not likely to fall apart during the first time you put it on the washing machine.

Eventhough the tee was kinda tight for a L, it felt overall ok and it has a nice girly cut. Only thing I noticed is that it doesn’t fit me really well at the chest area, no idea why. Maybe my back or my boobs are too big for L or whatever (did I just promote my boobs over the internets? did I?).

TheRyde.com offers a wide range of nice designs, featuring some favs of mine and many, many nice surf designs. Eventhough the pricing is kinda steep, the quality of service is really good and the shipping procedure particularly short (at least for me). All in all, schwag donation aside, I was left contented with TheRyde.com products and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to wear something unique every day.

This is not a paid review, as mr. Stewart never obliged me to write something particularly positive or anything of the like. He was just generous enough to familiarize me with his merchandise and for that I’m grateful.

theryde, tee, t-shirt, theryde.com, ryde.com